With this month’s 50th anniversary of the moon landing, excerpts from Douglas test engineer Ray M. Smith’s Boulder Rotary Club presentation, July 16, 2004, provide historical context.
“Where were you on July 16, 1969 when we watched televised pictures of American Astronauts walking on the moon? We had captured the imagination of the world with the most successful space program ever undertaken.
“The story of the Saturn/Apollo program began in l944 in Peenemunde, Germany, the home of the V1 and V2 rockets and aerospace engineer Dr. Wernher Von Braun. Knowing the war in Germany was ending, he got word to the American forces that he would work with US scientists to develop an advanced rocket for space exploration. An American commando team brought Von Braun out of Germany along with his protégé, Dr. Kurt Debus, a bright young rocket engineer.
“Von Braun met with American scientists in Huntsville, Alabama to begin the first discussions of space exploration using advanced rockets. After initial failures with the American program, a great success with the Russian’s “Sputnik” and the first human in space, Yuri Gregorian, Dr. Von Braun suggested a major shift in the thinking about future lunar exploration. Dr. Debus sketched the complete Saturn/ Apollo program to send a man to the moon with a safe return.
“The political will of Congress sold the program to the American public. With the support of both parties, 6.4 billion dollars was approved to begin the program. Von Braun promised President Kennedy this could be accomplished before the end of the l960’s. With a White House mandate and the approved funding, NASA began building the program issuing separate contracts for the various components to Boeing, North American, Douglas, Grumman and others.
“NASA’s philosophy was clear – design a system, create its reliability by testing, testing and re-testing. The Douglas team made over 100 simulated trips in their development of Saturn V’s third stage rocket (S-IVB) prior to the 1969 moon launch on Apollo 11.”
During Apollo Missions 13-17 the S-IVB was crashed into the moon performing seismic measurements for characterizing the lunar core. Subsequently, it was converted into the Skylab last reentering Earth’s atmosphere July 11, 1979.